Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Terengganu all geared up to put its best face forward

KUALA TERENGGANU: Even the storm has not dampened their spirits. The tourism authorities are all geared up to continue with their Visit Malaysia 2007 promotion and woo more tourists.

On Monday, the state tourism board held a simple event at a taxi stand here and briefed taxi drivers on the importance of being courteous to tourists.

Board director Mohd Amirul Rizal Abdul Rahim said it would not be issuing a travel advisory on the flood situation because it was “not as bad as what occurred in Johor”.

“We will continue our efforts to promote Terengganu, as the weather is expected to improve over the next couple of days,” he added.

Mohd Amirul Rizal said Sunday’s floodwaters on all major roads in the state had already receded.

“The weather seems fine and we welcome tourists to visit Terengganu,” he added. Meanwhile, strong winds forced two flights to reroute on Sunday after the planes could not land at the Sultan Mahmod airport here.

A Malaysia Airports Bhd spokesman said the MAS and AirAsia flights carrying almost 300 passengers had to turn back due the weather.

Both airlines, he said, rescheduled the flights and were given the green light by the air traffic controller here to land at 10pm.

He said the situation was back to normal yesterday.

In another development, the state Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Centre (Tumec) would comb the shorelines following a report that several marine turtles had beached there due to the choppy sea and high waves.